The Senior Surge

People often speak wistfully about young people being the future of this country. They certainly are — but let’s take a moment to recognize that the next few decades are actually going to belong to senior citizens.

Which makes a group like Seniors Taking Action, founded by Mary Mulvihill of North Haven and Judy Loeb of East Hampton six years ago, even more impactful. Their small gathering of seniors is growing, in size and stature — it now has 1,400 members — and could well become an advocacy group that serves as a voice for those 65 and older. And that’s a voice that will boom in the next two decades.

Skeptical? Statistics don’t lie. By 2050, the number of people 65 and older is expected to double globally to more than 2.1 billion — including 82 million in the United States, up from 58 million just a few years ago. That means a steadily growing increase from 17 to 23 percent of the U.S. populace.

And this same age group currently owns more than half of the national wealth, estimated at $96 trillion. Nearly the same amount — about $84 trillion — is expected to transfer from baby boomers and older generations to their heirs by 2050.

Older Americans are politically active: AARP says about three out of four voters age 65 and older cast ballots in recent elections. Those young people who are the future? Only a little more than half of 18-to-24-year-olds turned out. Voters over 50 were more than half of the electorate in U.S. battleground states in the last election. They are, largely, deciding elections.

So Seniors Taking Action is coming of age, so to speak, at a moment when its members can have the most impact politically. Now part of a coalition called We the Seniors, it leans left but welcomes voters of all parties to the table for a conversation about issues. Increasingly, those discussions go beyond Social Security, health care and taxes: The wide-ranging agenda of the Trump administration has put lots of other matters in focus — which potentially could make its positions more relevant than the AARP, which has traditionally stayed in its lane on “senior issues.”

If you’re at or near this age group, it’s worth taking a moment to visit seniorstakingaction.org to see if this little kitchen table conversation taking place right here on the South Fork is one you might want to join while it’s still relatively intimate. Because, very soon, it’s a discussion that could get very loud indeed.